Laos bartenders gave tourists free shots days after mass methanol poisoning

A backpacker who arrived at the same hostel where two Aussie women drank fatal doses of methanol was shocked at what she saw just days after their deaths.

British backpacker Tash Moore, 21, arrived in Laos just days after six people fell victim to a suspected mass methanol poisoning incident, but she says bar staff in Vang Vieng were still pouring free shots for tourists.

Tash was supposed to be at Nana Backpacker Hostel in Vang Vieng on November 12 – the night Denmark nationals Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and Freja Vennervald Sorensen, 21, drank fatal doses of methanol in the form of free vodka shots.

Australian women Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both 19, also consumed the tainted spirits that evening. They died about a week later in separate hospitals in Thailand. All four women were guests of the same hostel.

Tash Moore visited Vang Vieng two days after two Danish tourists died from suspected methanol poisoning. Source - Instagram

Nana Backpackers Hostel in Vang Vieng, where tourists died of suspected methanol poisoning (Photo by AFP)

Tash made the snap decision to extend her stay at Koh Rong, a Cambodia island, before the methanol incidents took place. She says that decision likely saved her life.

“I was going to be at that hostel that night,” she said. “I do like to have drinks and socialise, and I would have had the free shots.”

The poisonings hadn’t made the news by the time she was on the train to Vang Vieng. She only found out Anne-Sofie and Freja had died through a chance encounter with another backpacker who suggested she book another hostel.

She quickly cancelled her stay at Nana in favour of Mad Monkey Hostel.

“When I got to Vang Vieng, no one in the world seemed to know about the situation, my friends didn’t know, it was just rumoured that two girls had died,” she said.

“We were told a lot of people were in hospital, but it was under wraps so we didn’t know for sure.”

She said the situation felt “swept under the rug” by all staff in the town.

“At Mad Monkey, there was a sign that said ‘due to recent events be super careful with alcohol, but don’t worry our alcohol is fine’,” she said.

Holly Bowles is critically ill after a suspected mass poisoning during a holiday in South-East Asia. Picture: Facebook

Melbourne teen Bianca Jones dies in methanol poisoning tragedy. Picture: Facebook

“It felt like they were saying, ‘this situation is going on, but you can still buy drinks and spend money’ and it felt so morbid and things carried on as normal.”

Tash was in Vang Vieng for five days, as the international story unfolded. What began as vague rumours that two people had died quickly evolved into six confirmed fatalities.

Along with Holly, Bianca, Anne-Sofie and Freja, British lawyer Simone White, 28, and American man James Hutson, 56, also died. Dozens more were hospitalised.

Tash heard some were brain dead, others were in a coma or had gone blind, but that didn’t stop staff at bars and clubs from handing out free shots.

“Everything was going on the exact same,” she said. “In the clubs they were offering free shots and if you didn’t take them they’d look at you, like ‘why won’t you have the free shot?’.”

She didn’t consume spirits during their time in Vang Vieng, opting only for drinks in sealed containers.

Originally published as Laos bartenders gave tourists free shots days after mass methanol poisoning